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43 Posts
Okay, this is the saddest bari story you've ever heard, I'm sure.
I started playing bari when I was in eighth grade...it was the most
amazing thing ever. I played the school's bari....a yamaha...not sure
what model...approx. 12 years old.
I played bari in concert, and jazz, and i marched with a tuba. (shut up)
This year, I changed schools and I had to leave my bari behind
(okay, it's not really my bari, since it belonged to the school, but i put my valuable time and energy into it, so i call it mine)
Now, I'm marching Alto sax, and i'm trying to get on bari in concert, but here comes the problem.
JohnClifton. He's a good kid, he really is, but he's keeping me from my destiny...ahem. no really.
He plays the school's only good bari...i dont know what brand it is, but it's gorgeous, and well taken care of. (it's just as old as my bari at my old school, btw)
My new school has 3 bari's stored upstairs in the loft...my band director told me to find one that works. THAT was sheer terror.
The first one i picked out was dented so badly that, i couldnt even put the neck in it... The second one had a 'rat' in it, as we say...had duct tape on it, and couldn't play a low D without sputtering and dying a horrible death. and The third looked promising, but the low C# key had completely fallen off the thing.
Today, my band director rigged the dented one with a bass drum mallet so i could get the neck in it...and let me just say...it sounds HORRIBLE.
I know the sax is old...and hasn't been played in years, but something's gotta give. (THERE IS A POINT TO THIS, BELIEVE ME)
I would like to think that i'm a pretty good bari player. I had a pretty warm tone on the Yamaha at my old school, but this ancient Elkhart.........
yeah.
Problems:
whenever i play the Elkhart, i get a really nasty, bitter tone.
Could it be the reed? I'm playing on a Rico 3 1/2 (JohnClifton gave it to me....he said he hated it.) and i HATE Rico reeds to...i usually play Vandorens..
I squeak....badly it's not a shrill, high pitched squeak, it's that stale, nasty, dead sounding squeak...(this happens when i come down basic concert scales, or jump octaves...like if the music has a D below the staff, then a D on the line....it squeaks)
Anybody willing to help out a poor, southern girlie?